One of the most critical parameters in chemical and biochemical processes is the viscosity of the medium. Its impact on mixing, as well as on mass and energy transfer is substantial. An increase of viscosity with reaction time can be caused by the formation of biopolymers like xanthan or by filamentous growth of microorganisms. In either case the properties of fermentation broth are changing and frequently non-Newtonian behavior are observed, resulting in major challenges for the measurement and control of mixing and mass transfer. This study demonstrates a method for the online determination of the viscosity inside a stirred tank reactor. The presented method is based on online measurement of heat transfer capacity from the bulk medium to the jacket of the reactor. To prove the feasibility of the method, fermentations with the xanthan producing bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris B100 as model system were performed. Excellent correlation between offline measured apparent viscosity and online determined heat transfer capacity were found. The developed tool should be applicable to any other process with formation of biopolymers and filamentous growth. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 990-997. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Baghouse filters are used to reduce the emission of pollutants in the atmosphere. With the stricter environmental regulations and the need to avoid the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere, the demand for better results in terms of collection efficiency and filtration rises. A good performance of a baghouse filter is closely linked to the correct flow distribution inside it, whether in the hopper or in the bags. Other important variables for good performance are internal speed, filtration rate (RAP), pressure drop, cleaning efficiency, etc. The upgrading of existing bag filters to current standards is a major challenge for the industry, generally due to, among other factors, emission regulations and common physical and dimensional constraints of the existing equipment. Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis (CFD) can help deal with this problem because it makes possible to perform several analyzes at a lower cost and with great result accuracy when compared with the traditional approaches. In this work, the analysis of an existing bag filter, which presents serious problems of premature discharging of components due to nonuniformity in the internal distribution of the flow, is performed. This analysis has several steps, among them, documentation survey, field survey, flow and pressure drop measurements (pressure differential between the clean side and the dirty side of the filter) with the aid of CFD, with the objective to raise pressure and velocity and to identify possible dimensional changes to improve flow uniformity.